Marywood Falls to Alvernia in ECAC Final

Scranton, PA – Fourth-seeded Alvernia jumped out to a 5-0 lead over the first 11 minutes of Sunday morning's ECAC Mid-Atlantic final and never looked back, claiming the championship with an 18-7 victory over Marywood. The Crusaders finish the season with a 12-8 record, while the second-seeded Pacers close a record-breaking season with a 16-5 mark.

Sarah George opened the scoring for Alvernia 2:39 into Sunday contest before Allison Bainbridge rattled off four straight goals to give the Crusaders a 5-0 lead with 19:06 left in the first half. Sarah Caughy put Marywood on the board at the 11:46 mark of the opening half and Diana D'Achille cut the Pacers' deficit to 5-2 with an unassisted tally 1:15 later.

Alvernia responded with the game's next three goals to hold an 8-2 advantage with six minutes to play in the opening period before Kimberly Commisso and D'Achille scored back-to-back goals for Marywood. A goal by the Crusaders' Tonya Rutt with just 11 seconds left before halftime stopped the Pacers' momentum though as Alvernia held a 9-4 lead at the break.

The Crusaders got goals from three different players to start the second half, stretching their lead to 12-4 before Brooke Bondurant snapped Alvernia's run with an unassisted marker with 13:39 remaining. The two teams traded goals over the next five minutes with D'Achille completing her hat-trick and Commisso netting her second goal of the afternoon at the 8:25 mark to make the score 14-7 in favor of Alvernia. The Crusaders would go on to score the final four goals of the contest to claim the championship victory.

Jennifer Czarnecki turned in a solid, 12-save effort in Alvernia's goal to lead the Crusaders to the win and was named the championship's Most Outstanding Player for her effort. Bainbridge (6 goals, 1 assist), George (5 goals, 2 assists), and Samantha Landis (2 goals, 5 assists) each had seven points to lead Alvernia's attack.

Marywood was paced by D'Achille's three goals as the sophomore reached the 100-point plateau for the second straight season, finishing the year with 101 points. Commisso added thee points on two goals and one assist while collecting a game high seven draw controls.

Leigh Dolcemascolo made six saves in Marywood's cage while Ashley Cavellier led all players with three caused turnovers for the Pacers.

Alvernia held a 37-28 advantage in shots for the game, a slim 26-25 edge in groundballs, and won the battle for draw controls by a 16-11 margin.

Sunday's championship game marked the final games in a Marywood uniform for seniors Taylor McKeown, who finished her career sixth on the all-time NCAA Division III goal scoring list with 294 career goals, and Stephanie Naro, who led the Pacers with four groundball collections on Sunday. Both seniors were walking across the graduation stage to accept their diplomas at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Wilkes-Barre later after Sunday's game.